PARENT ENGAGEMENT THE KEY TO YOUR CHILD’S SUCCESS

AIMS OF PARENT ASSEMBLY  Advocacy on issues important to parents  Faith and spiritual development of families  Parent education – many different issues eg. Positive parenting techniques, cyber safety, body image and self-esteem and PARENT ENGAGEMENT IN LEARNING

What happens when parents are engaged in learning?  Children get higher grades  Children complete more homework  Children have a more positive attitude  Children have improved behaviour  Children are more likely to complete high school and go onto further education

Research shows that:  The more involved parents are in their child’s education, the more likely the child is to succeed in school  Parent support for learning is more important than the child’s IQ, economic status or school setting

What is parent engagement? 2 Types 1. Parents are engaged in the school community eg P and F, help with fundraisers, volunteer as class parents, attend school masses and assemblies. Helps your child see the school as a community of which their parents are a part. 2. Parents are engaged in the learning of their child eg. Actively promote home learning to reinforce the skills learnt in class, always ask about what their child is learning, use everyday activities like cooking etc to teach, speak about school and teachers in a positive way, attend parent/teacher meetings and keep in close contact with their child’s teacher.

Helping your child with reading  Read, read, read and then read with them some more.  Have a home environment that is book rich and dedicated to reading.  Rhyming and repetition books are great for kids.  Making the connection between letters and sounds. Try games like I Spy and House Search.

Helping your child with writing  Put together a box of writing materials  Make writing fun  Playdough is excellent for developing fine motor skills needed for writing  Draw lines, circles and loops on a page and ask your child to trace over them with their fingers and then with a pencil.  Magnetic letters on a fridge – practise their names and other key words  Read alphabet books  Ask your child to tell you a story and then write it down for them. Read it back to them.

Helping your child with numeracy  When baking cakes or cooking with your child show them the cup measurements and talk about half cups etc.  Play games that involve counting eg Snakes and Ladders, What’s the Time Mr Wolf?  Working with patterns  Maths is also about measurement – get your child to sort items according to size.  Let them play with the tape measure if you are building things and talk to them as you measure.  House hunt  Jigsaw puzzles

RESOURCES  You and time are the best resource your child has  Board of Studies Booklets “Helping your child…”. These are available for purchase at tml tml  Booklets available at newsagencies, bookshops and even Aldi  Websites  (numeracy site)  (loads of different school readiness activities for literacy, numeracy, social skills, co-ordination  (literacy)  (American site with interactive learning activities    (a great website with numeracy and literacy worksheets, homework and assignment help, info on well-being, technology, school lunches